On March 17, Pret a Manger made the difficult decision to temporarily close their 86 locations nationwide to protect the health and well-being of their customers and employees. Today, Pret announced that beginning April 28, Pret will be reopening select New York City locations that will serve the majority of Manhattan from 8:30am-3 pm to allow for take-out and 10 – 3 for delivery via an exclusive partnership with Grubhub/Seamless. This will be the first-wave of store re-openings. Pret expects to continually open more shops on a bi-weekly basis as early as May.
Additionally, Pret will be launching “Pret Groceries,” an on-demand delivery/pick-up service through Seamless that allows New Yorkers to shop for grocery essentials without the inconvenience and difficulty of securing a set delivery window. Customers can select their favorite Pret ingredients for delivery or take-out, including select whole produce, honey wheat & gluten-free breads, Pret’s Granola, Oats, quart-sized soups, organic coffee & tea and various milk products (whole, skim, half & half, oat and almond), and packs of their freshly baked cookies that will be delivered to their door within the hour.
Employees staffing the four locations (179 Broadway (delivery only), Union Square, 116th & Broadway and 70th & York), will receive an overtime premium of 1.5X their hourly rate. New safety precautions are also being implemented to protect both employees and customers including:
- No more than 6 customers inside the restaurant at any time and tape will be applied outside to maintain a 6 foot distance while customers wait to enter
- Shields will be placed on the till counter to avoid contamination
- Hand sanitizer available for customer use
- Customers have the option to pack their own bags
- All cutlery, stirrers, napkins will be stored behind the counter and passed to customers on request.
- Only contactless payment will be accepted (Pret App, Apple Pay, or credit card)
- Only customers wearing face masks will be allowed to enter
While Pret physical locations have been temporarily closed, the Pret Foundation has been operating at full speed, with over 173,000 pounds of food donated to New Yorkers in need since March 17th through the brand’s 20-year partnership with City Harvest and their partnership with Rescuing Leftover Cuisine. Historically, Pret has donated over 5 million pounds of food to City Harvest, who visits their NYC locations every night to pick up their unsold food.
